Apple has sold $17bn of bonds, including $14bn of fixed-rate securities and $3bn of floating-rate notes.
The fundraising, which is the company’s first since 1996, is the biggest corporate offering for any company on record.
The offering includes bonds maturing from 3 to 30 years, mostly with fixed rates through Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.
Bloomberg reported that proceeds may help Apple avoid repatriation taxes on its $102.3bn of funds held overseas as the company returns an additional $55bn to shareholders through 2015.
Apple reported a 11% rise in its revenue to $43.6bn during the second quarter (Q2) of 2013, compared to $39.2bn for the same period in the previous year.
In Q2 2013, the company’s net profit declined to $9.5bn, or $10.09 per diluted share, compared to $11.6bn, or $12.30 per diluted share, it reported for the same quarter last year.
Last month, Microsoft raised about $2.7bn in a bond offering in the US and European markets, tapping bond investors ahead of competitor Apple’s proposed bond issue.
Microsoft sold $1.95bn in the US market, representing the firm’s fifth US bond deal since 2009.
